Fire Inside the Stone
by cockycute
Summary: Mulan has trained herself never to betray emotion, even to shut herself off from them, but when she falls in love with her best friend, she learns that sometimes, it's okay to let someone under her armor.


Mulan had learned to close herself off. Emotion was a luxury that she did not have as a warrior. In her land women could be princesses, they could be queens, they could be sorceresses, they could be incredibly powerful, but they could not be warriors. Her mother thought that she was being silly, that could have much more power standing behind the sidelines, the puppetmaster that pulled the strings of the marionettes that were the men in her land. Her mother told her that she was wasting her potential and that she should leave "playing at war" for the men who had no other talents, that Mulan was better than this. But despite her mother's warnings that she would regret her choice once she had gotten too old to fight, that once her aging body had robbed her of the only skill that she had learned she would wish that she had listened to the wise words of her mother. Despite all of this (or maybe because of it) Mulan had fought to become a warrior. Despite all of her optimism about what her future would hold, about all of the adventures that she would go on while fighting against evil, her dreams were crushed. She learned the hard way that there was more to being a warrior than just fighting bad guys and traveling the world. After her first day of training had proven to be the most rigorous day in her pampered, sheltered life. Mulan had sat down and started to cry after she found out the harsh reality of the dream that she'd had ever since she was five and the men of her village had come home victorious in one of the many Ogre Wars, celebrated as heroes. Mulan was worried that her mother was right, and that warriors were just glorified thugs, so she sat on the ground crying self-pitying tears until her commander knelt down beside her with cruel, uncaring eyes. He told her that if she wanted to be a warrior, she would have to lock away every one of her emotions and throw away the key, because an enemy could hurt her by using her emotional vulnerabilities just as effectively as they could by stabbing her through a chink in her armor, so he showed her how to make her face a blank slate, without a single emotion written on it. He showed her how to take every emotion that she had and extinguish it as easily as she could extinguish a torch. Using his helpful advice on both how to fight and how to be as emotionally invulnerable as a stone. Mulan had trained for years to become warrior that she was so proud of. Throughout the years, Mulan had learned to guard herself in armor both physically and literally, in fact, the main reason that she covered herself in the heavy metal armor wasn't to keep her enemies from killing her. She was far too skilled and agile to need armor for that. No, she wore all of that unnecessary armor to remind herself that she could never let herself be vulnerable, that she had to stay strong and never give anyone an opportunity to exploit her only person that she would let get beneath her armor was Aurora. Mulan was aware of her entitlement, how high maintenance and spoiled she was, but she knew that there was more to Aurora than that. She knew that under the imperiousness and entitlement that the life of a princess had created as Aurora's defense mechanisms for keeping people at arm's length, there was a strong, loyal, fiery woman who would stand up for what she believed in and do anything to protect the ones that she loved. So Mulan vowed to protect her no matter the personal costs, or who she had to betray to do it. When they were separated after Aurora was put under the sleeping curse, Mulan waited for her, she worked for years with Aurora's "true love", Prince Phillip, to search for her and save her. When they finally found her after twenty-eight years, and they realized that the curse could only be broken by true love's kiss, Phillip stepped up, to be the romantic hero who would free Aurora from her sleeping death. Mulan seethed, wishing that it could be her kissing Aurora's rosebud lips. When Phillip kissed Aurora, Mulan looked away, unable to watch a man kiss the woman she loved. But even without watching, Mulan knew that Phillip's kiss was chaste and passionless, so unlike the way she would have kissed Aurora if she were given the chance. Her kisses would be passionate and explosive, like a supernova. The feeling would be so strong that Aurora would never want to kiss anyone else, because no one could even come close to making her feel the way that Mulan made her feel. Despite her extensive training in numbing her emotions, she could quell this one powerful fantasy, which is why, even though Phillip was one of Mulan's best friends, mixed in with the anguish she felt at losing him, in the darkest, most selfish part of her cold, stony heart, she felt a small spark of triumph.

Even as a child, Mulan had been serious, somber, even, Aurora had to admit, slightly humorless, it was this humorlessness that caused most people not to like Mulan, but every once in awhile, when Aurora made a particularly funny joke, or did something especially kind for Mulan, a huge, beautiful, genuine smile would spread across Mulan's face. It would light up the entire room. It would make Aurora feel beautiful and smart and funny. She could cause a person who had spent her entire life learning to squelch her emotions slip up with a smile. It was so rare, and Aurora would do anything to be the cause of that smile. Sadly, she hadn't seen it since she had woken up from her sleeping curse, she hadn't seen Mulan's smile once, just the stony mask that everyone else saw.

It was Aurora's turn to stay awake and make sure that no one would try to kill them while the blonde woman was up in the beanstock doing who knows what with the attractive pirate. Aurora got bored, so she started watching Mulan sleep. It was the only time that Mulan would let herself be vulnerable, but even now, Aurora could see a wariness to her face, her hand was on the hilt of her sword, and Aurora knew that at the smallest disturbance, Mulan would wake up fighting. Aurora wanted to stroke her hair, but she was worried that she would wake Mulan up, and she wanted Mulan to get what little sleep she could. Aurora's worry was unnecessary because just then, Mulan woke up on her own.

"It's my watch."Mulan said "Go to sleep."

"I'd rather stay up." Aurora said in that imperious way that she had when she wanted people to take her seriously.

"You need to sleep, it is my watch, so you don't need to stay up."

"Don't be so high-handed. I can stay awake if I want to."

"Aurora, go to sleep, I have trained myself to survive on two hours a day."

"I'm having nightmares!" Aurora blurted out. Mulan turned from angry to concerned.

"How long has this been going on?"

"Ever since I woke up."

"Maybe Phillip was not the right person to wake you up." Mulan whispered with uncharacteristic shyness.

"You think that you could have done better?" Aurora's heart was pounding with her desire.

"Of course" Mulan said cockily before initiating the kiss. It was amazing, better than the supernova that Mulan had imagined that it would be. It was more spectacular than a sunrise that she had stayed up all night to see. Mulan was happier than she could remember ever having been in her entire life. Mulan's happiness flooded into Aurora. Mulan's kiss was so much better than any kiss that she'd shared with a man. Even Phillip's kisses were weak shadows of this one. When Mulan finally pulled away, she was out of breath, despite her extensive athletic training, Aurora's kiss was almost too much for her. "You're amazing!" She told Aurora, having lost the self-possession that she was so famous for. They kissed again, many, many, times, and when Aurora finally went to sleep, she slept like a baby, without a single nightmare.


End file.
